Rooftop Wedding

I recently had the pleasure of working a wedding on our rooftop terrace for a bride with excellent taste. It was one of those weddings that I could not stop taking photos of, as seen by my Instagram that evening. The bride had excellent taste in vendors, bringing in some of the best in the business (and our personal favorite to work with at the museum) including John Michael catering, Our DJ Rocks, Imprint Cinema, American Furniture Rental, Lee Forrest Floral Design, and Letz Dance On It. 

The average work day of a wedding coordinator begins in the afternoon with printing diagrams, looking over the production schedule, prepping the space like unlocking the kitchen galley, tidying the bridal suite, checking emails for any last minute updates to the timeline, and other preparatory tasks. Then, the setup crew arrives and we oversee them. During that time, vendors begin arriving and we'll greet them, answer any of their questions, show them anything that they might need. During all of this, we are communicating with our exhibits department to put away certain pieces, we're communicating with housekeeping to clean any messy areas from the day of museum guests, and we're communicating with the house manager for unlocking any closets we may need like electrical to alter lights. The hours of setup and breakdown seem to fly by in the matter of an instant with how much we take care of.

As I attempt to write down a list of all of our wedding responsibilities, I realize how endless the list is! Each wedding is different so there are a myriad of specific details for each particular wedding to keep in mind. Once setup is nearly complete, the wedding ceremony is close to beginning, and then we coordinate that. We time the walking and the music with the DJ or ceremony musician, we cue the wedding party when to go, we  excitedly take pictures of the lovely couple, then we alert the vendors that the ceremony is over and that guests will be arriving for cocktail hour shortly. 

Our night of coordinating does have a small lull, this is the time that we eat after all of the guests have eaten. This is also the time that I hover the vendors to make sure they are okay, as well as to just have fun with them. We Instagram, tweet, and now Vine during this time - showing off our beautiful weddings. After the send-off of the bride and groom, the less glamorous part comes of breakdown. But, everyone wants to get out of the building and go home so it's never too long or drawn out. It's remarkable how we have to breakdown everything completely and in the matter of one hour, the museum goes back to looking like a party never happened.

This weekend we are taking a little trip to the beach and even if it rains all weekend, I am so looking forward to a bit of a break. I think we're going to try to make it a technology-free weekend. I'm looking forward to. After that, we are hoping to get back into a routine. Ever since our own wedding there has been a lot to accomplish so we haven't been cooking like we normally do and we've been eating out much more often than normal. We want to get back into our routine of healthy eating, cooking dinner every night, and buying fresh produce for the week. After we get back from this weekend trip, I hope that it will be the refresh button that we need.